Ari Wallach

Episode 57 of The Social Impact Journal podcast is out now with Gigi Susan Danziger! Gigi is an impact investor, exited founder and champions a number of community-led innovation projects in Hudson, New York. In the episode, we covered so many things including the story of the HudsonUP initiative — the first small-city Universal Basic Income (UBI) pilot in the U.S. — and reflected on the evidence and lessons learned so far. Listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube by searching for “The Social Impact Journal.” The show is produced by SIJ Media, which is also the home of the Financial Inclusion Unlocked podcast. —————————————————————- Hi, I’m Jack 👋 I’m the CEO of Rural Inclusion Labs, a social enterprise delivering digital learning solutions across 12+ countries to advance climate insurance awareness, digital financial literacy, and sustainable agriculture in rural communities. I also run SIJ Media, a new agency currently producing two podcasts: The Social Impact Journal and Financial Inclusion Unlocked.

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Resource for NYC-Based Artists NYFA's Emerging Leaders Program will serve 24 arts administrators around NYC and the Tri-State area. The newly designed year-long program adds to our existing leadership initiatives which serve Executive leaders and small arts organizations, by focusing on the unique needs and interests of manager-level arts leaders. The program will introduce managerial frameworks and tools, and embed participants in community to facilitate current and future networking, growth, and thought-partnership. Applications are currently open through Wednesday, December 17: https://lnkd.in/edPaFBfA

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We know there are funders and practitioners out there who want to do things differently.  That's where #Pando funding comes in, specifically the world's first Bioregional Pando Funding Ecosystem being developed right now by Legacy Project Founder Susan V. Bosak and myself, along with Joe Brewer and Penny L. Heiple. This is a rethink of how we organize and fund real work on the ground. If everything is connected to everything else, and we're in a #polycrisis, then we need a whole-system approach. A #bioregion is the smallest actionable scale that maintains whole-system integrity. This is about ecological regeneration (watersheds, large landscapes, food systems) and social regeneration (Indigenous reconciliation, education, economy, health, grassroots stewardship) – all together, in a way that multiplies the impact of funding. Read more at: https://lnkd.in/grR_2PYj This is a multi-year, multi-donor approach that combines the best of many existing approaches to philanthropy: Emergent Strategy; Collective Impact; Multi-Donor Fund Pooling; Trust-Based Philanthropy; Flow Funding; Future-Focused Funding; Developmental Evaluation; Systems Complexity Research. We're moving from point-solution funding to financing system health, from a "fixing" mindset to a healing mindset. This work meets the global moment – emergent, complex, synergistic, adaptable, innovative, and answering to the next seven generations. Our bioregion, the Greater Tkaronto Bioregion (GTB) in Canada on the Great Lakes, was first defined by former Toronto Mayor and federal cabinet minister The Honourable David Crombie. He published the seminal 1992 "Regeneration" report. Our work builds on his legacy. From Crombie's report, the bioregion is "both a way of doing things and a way of thinking. It's not a new concept. Indigenous peoples have long understood their connectedness to the ecosystem – the land, water, air, and other life. Thinking about the whole bioregion helps focus attention on the interdependencies… Everything is connected to everything else." As part of a Catalytic Cohort of funders for the Bioregional Pando Funding Ecosystem, we're springboarding off a powerful North/South collaboration between GTB/Great Lakes Basin and Barichara/Northern Andes. This is real work already in progress, with experienced Core Teams, a network of trusted relationships, and a diverse Portfolio of Projects. Our current funders leverage and de-risk the contributions of new funders. This is about co-creating the next evolution in #philanthropy. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/grR_2PYj

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Fighting hate requires innovation and taking risks to cut through the noise. The new ADL Ora, an AI Assistant for Educators, is built on our proprietary resources and uses cutting edge tech to provide educators with instant access to trusted materials to help their students understand complex issues like Jewish identity and the Holocaust. Proud that ADL is putting powerful, world class tools in the hands of teachers who need them.

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Air Aware capstone presentations are underway, highlighting the collaborative efforts between OUSD, HG, and the Sequoia Foundation to empower young people in East Oakland. This initiative focuses on the importance of Climate Action. Climate action is real and a critical aspect of our work.@Sequoia Climate Foundation. The presentations showcase the impactful projects developed by the youth, emphasizing their role in addressing climate challenges.

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We’re proud to feature Michele Ferrell in our latest DWD blog ,a powerful reminder of why centring Black and Brown disabled voices is essential to truly inclusive practice. At DWD, storytelling is a tool for change. Lived‑experience narratives help shape equitable policy, strengthen partnerships, and inform better design. 📣 We’re inviting story submissions from community members and collaborators whose experiences can drive understanding and influence real change. info@divaswithdisabilities.org 🔗 Read Michele’s story  https://lnkd.in/eqmu-WDX and learn how to contribute. https://lnkd.in/ekQRhScA #EmpoweringWomen #OurStories #BlackAndBrownWomenWwithDisabilities  #ForwardGlobal #GaRRS #DivasInTheCITY 

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Maybe you didn't know the world as you know it depends largely on open-source software. This is important for a free and open society that supports innovation and collaboration. And, not to tie everything to AI, but AI software developing agents and assistants exist because they trained on open-source codebases. I'm glad there are humans focusing on this aspect of keeping the world turning.

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Sister Of NEW announces the launch of its public homepage and Institutional Binder. The platform introduces a comprehensive workforce development model designed to expand women’s access to skilled‑trades careers. It outlines the institution’s mission, governance structure, program architecture, and quality systems, all grounded in globally aligned frameworks including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, AmeriCorps service principles, and ISO‑informed quality standards. Explore the institution: Homepage: https://lnkd.in/evu_nbMV Institutional Binder: https://lnkd.in/eBbz9FC3 Sister Of NEW is now positioned for partnerships, collaboration, and national impact.

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TREND #1 CULTURE IS CIVIC INFRASTRUCTURE Map and protect cultural spaces - a city must plan for culture like we plan for schools, hospitals, transport, green space and other civic infrastructure. Boston and many other cities World Cities Culture Forum are creating cultural infrastructure plans. BOSTON LEADERSHIP 🚀 What is the problem ? 😤🤯 Boston has lost at least 100,000 square feet of art space in the last decade 😱😱😱 And the solution ? ✨🌍 A new cultural infrastructure plan will offer a fix. It will give the city and developers the tools to advocate for culture properly. Read more about City of Boston plan on this interview with Joseph Zeal-Henry ⬇️ WANT TO READ HOW OTHER CITIES ARE BUCKING THIS TREND? Our Leadership Exchange Programme brought together cities to map culture infrastructure, and you can read a dedicated chapter on protecting cultural spaces in the 5th Edition of the World Cities Culture Report https://lnkd.in/dzhaCXvK World Cities Culture Forum Justine Simons OBE Isabella Valentini Maryam Ja’far Shariff Ella Kenny Allie Lester Katherine Thornton Bloomberg Philanthropies Kenneth Rainin Foundation Fundação Itaú Left Bank Co.

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Validation for My Theory I’m currently reading former Sundance CEO, Mirimax President and current Harvard Shorenstein Fellow Keri Putnam's study on U.S. Independent Film. It echoes what I’ve been saying all along: The structural failure isn’t creative — it’s systemic. Independent film operates as “an archipelago of disconnected players.” The financing model is obsolete. There’s no standardized feedback mechanism. And as Putnam writes, what independent film requires is not charity — but a sustainable architecture that aligns creative, financial, and institutional incentives. Independent film has never had an ecosystem that truly worked. So we’re building one. It’s called QSOS — the Quentasia Studio Operating System — and it changes how stories move from vision to value. Details soon. #IndependentFilm #EntertainmentFinance #CreativeDiscipline #StudioDesign #QSOS

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Parallel institutions are not radical—they're practical. In the face of systems that no longer meet the needs of their people, innovation emerges from the grassroots. 🛠️🌍 We’re seeing this everywhere: 🔹 Worker cooperatives in underserved communities 🔹 Mutual aid housing networks 🔹 Crowdsourced legal and medical care 🔹 Civic assemblies that engage beyond elections These are models of sustainability, empowerment, and adaptability. Businesses and nonprofits that embrace and support them will be more in tune with emerging markets—and the moral arc of history. #SystemInnovation #CivicEntrepreneurship #CooperativeEconomy #EthicalInfrastructure #JusticeAndWork #CommunityDrivenSolutions #ValuesBasedLeadership

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🎯 Mid-Level Fundraising = Art + Science 🎯 Mid-level fundraisers live in the space between relationship-building and data-driven strategy — and that balance is where the magic happens. ✨ Learn how to blend intuition with systems to deepen donor joy and boost results. 👉 Read more: https://buff.ly/URZK5FI

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Upstart Co-Lab is proud to be the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)'s strategic partner for the development and launch of the NYC Inclusive Creative Economy Fund, the first targeted impact investment opportunity benefiting creatives in New York City. The Fund demonstrates how deploying capital in the inclusive creative economy is catalytic in supporting local economic development & creating accessible, high-quality jobs in disinvested communities; and that investors have an appetite for impact opportunities aligned with art, design, culture, heritage, and creativity. Read the report here: https://lnkd.in/ezbmFD4Z #impinv #impactinvesting #socent #creativeeconomy #creativity #art

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Fundraisers, Have opinions on how we can stop the 18-month average tenure of fundraising staff? Send me your thoughts and questions. I will try to incorporate them in my upcoming conversation with experts, Maureen Huminik and Paula Sakey (she/her).

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My #2025 #Week24 update of #fieldandmovementbuilding #conversations and #collaborations with the following people this past week: #networkexperiment #appreciatinginformalexchange #thepowerofongoingconnection #makingtheinvisiblevisible 💛 Asha Curran - GivingTuesday: building a #distributed global #network around #purpose 💛 Xevion Baptiste - Strategist: finding suitable platforms for impact 💛 Peter Boyd - Yale School of the Environment: building a systems leadership #MOOC that connects to 100k people and beyond - what can we learn for #futures literacy dissemination? 💛 Anna Gincherman - ConsumerCentriX: developments in the aid sector 💛 Arthur Muliro - Society for International Development: #kenya #africa engagement 💛 Keesha Gaskins-Nathan - Rockefeller Brothers Fund: ensuring #foresight DOES drive #transformation 💛 Third Dialogue “The Declaration on Future Generations & the #WorldSummitforSocialDevelopment” dialogue hosted by the Jamaican Mission to the UN in New York 💛 Klara WYRZYKOWSKA - United Nations: moving from words to action #DeclarationOnFutureGenerations and  #intergenerationalfairness 💛 @Ambassador Brian Wallace - Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the UN: the critical role of the #DFG in the multilateral moment we are in - including on #UN priorities and focus 💛 Victoria Memarsadeghi - Clinton Global Initiative: #nextgen #changemakers & using #foresight for enabling transformative and #actionoriented exchanges 💛 Danielle McLaughlin - Horizon 2045: #litigation, #legalframeworks #nuclearproliferation & enhancing #globalsecurity 💛 Gina Lucarelli - UNDP: accelerator labs network as an infrastructure that the #UN absolutely needs for the next decade to continue innovating 💛 Narue Paulilo Shiki - UNDP: #foresight #signals and embedding capability - not least through a very popular #fellowship programme 💛 Bukola Jejeloye - OFFLINE DIPLOMAT: #future of #africa and focusing on #nigeria and #senegal 💛 Vitorino Mello Oliveira - @Portuguese Mission to the UN: #Portugal and #IGF leadership including with #universities and #local level  💛 João Dias - @Brazilian Mission to the UN: #Brazil's continued leadership on #futuregens and #climate transitions 💛Betty Sue Flowers - always an inspiration and a #JOY and #Delight - which we will be weaving into our #SOIF2025 retreat & #IntergenerationalExchangeCommunity 💛 And so many people at the NEXUS Global #Summit: - see #Day2 summary https://lnkd.in/eUE5XVFS - as well as #Day3 summary: https://lnkd.in/eGMpivZ8 Thank you for inspiring me - and being so generous with your time & insights as we share, explore and build together!

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OpenAI just announced the first 208 grantees of the People-First AI Fund — $40.5M in unrestricted support for community-based nonprofits across the U.S. I ran the list through ChatGPT to help me analyze patterns, and a few takeaways stood out: 1. This first wave wasn’t about “AI expertise.” OpenAI funded organizations that are trusted by their communities — youth programs, local libraries, tribal education groups, immigrant services, rural hubs, arts centers. Most are early in their AI exploration. This round was about local legitimacy, not technical sophistication. 2. They avoided consultants, AI strategists, and systems-level orgs. No institutional reform groups, no civic-tech intermediaries, no governance efforts. This phase was intentionally grounded in frontline work. 3. The portfolio is strongly place- and identity-rooted. A large portion of recipients are Black-, Latinx-, Indigenous-, rural-, immigrant-, or youth-serving organizations with deep relational credibility. 4. It’s very California-heavy. Unsurprising, given OpenAI’s commitments to its home state and the desire to test community-based AI work close to their ecosystem. 5. Arizona didn’t land an award in this first round. A few national networks touching Arizona show up, but no Arizona-based community orgs received funding. What this signals: This first wave was about grounding AI in the everyday realities of local communities, not about scaling, governance, or ecosystem design. It’s a credibility-building portfolio — a way to seed literacy, safety, and experimentation at the edges of the nonprofit world. OpenAI says the second wave will support “transformative” work with the potential for public-scale impact. That may be where systems-change, strategy, and institutional players come into focus. If you’re in the nonprofit or public-sector space thinking about AI adoption, now is the moment to pay attention to how the field is taking shape. The landscape is starting to sort itself into layers. https://lnkd.in/g7-G_22B

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This new report, 𝑴𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝑶𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒑𝒔𝒆, by the 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 offers a powerful framework for philanthropic leaders to navigate uncertainty while staying true to long-term #equity goals. One insight stands out: #learning and #evaluation are not just tools; they are critical infrastructure for resilience and transformation. In a rapidly changing world, our ability to sense shifting conditions, stay grounded in our values, and adapt with intention will define our impact. 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐲-𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Hanh Cao Yu Diana Scearce Yvonne Trask Anita Toy Lisa Jordan King Baudouin Foundation #Equity #Philanthropy #FutureOfGiving #Leadership #ScenarioPlanning

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Narrative shapes what communities believe is possible. And most collaboratives are still waiting to act on that truth. On April 14, I'm leading a hands-on workshop at the 2026 Collective Impact Action Summit where participants will walk away with two free, field-tested tools: the Narrative Audit Map and the Counter-Narrative Canvas. No new budget. No proprietary software. Just practical frameworks that fit into the meetings your team is already having. We'll work through real case examples of how shifting the narrative around marginalized communities unlocked partner support and resources that data alone could not move. Then you'll practice applying both tools to your own collaborative context. The Summit runs April 14-16 (virtual) and brings together nonprofit leaders, funders, and community partners working toward lasting systems change. This year's lineup also includes keynote conversations with Baratunde Thurston, Jinkx Monsoon, and Eric Liu on community joy as a long-term change strategy. Early-bird registration closes March 20. If you work in collective impact and want narrative change to be something your team actually does, not just believes in, I'd love to see you there. Register here: https://lnkd.in/eQR7sZmH

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